Movie Review: Tom and Huck (1995)

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Funny moments in a fun film

Cons: Character changes destroy the story

The Bottom Line:

New take old story

But character changes flawed

Leaves it not as fun

Fundamental Character Flaws in a Basically Fun Flick

During the height of his Home Improvement popularity, Disney made many movies as star vehicles for Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Frankly, none of them quite measured up to his talent. Tom and Huck, based on Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer, is one such example.

The story follows the general outline of the famous book. Tom Sawyer (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) is best friends with fellow orphan Huckleberry Finn (Brad Renfro). Against his Aunt Polly's (Amy Wright) wishes, Tom spends every moment he can with Huck.

And that leads to trouble. When they sneak into a cemetery late one night, they witness Injun Joe (Eric Schweig) kill Doc Robinson (William Newman) and frame drunk Muff Potter (Michael McShane) for it. Knowing that Injun Joe will come after them if they squeal, they take a vow of silence.

There is plenty of fun around town, especially when pretty new girl Becky Thatcher (Rachael Leigh Cook) is around. But Tom can't get the murder out of his mind, especially when Muff goes to trial. Will he do the right thing?

Even though I am sure this was designed as a star vehicle for Thomas, there are several fundamental flaws with it as such. First, why call it Tom and Huck? This includes nothing from any of Twain's other books about the characters. Why not stick with the original title?

In the book, Tom Sawyer is a schemer always ready to come up with some new idea to cause trouble. If anything, the other boys in town look up to him. Here, that's not the case. True, he can come up with some ideas on his own, like getting others to white wash his aunt's fence. But Huck seems to be the brains of the friendship. Huck is portrayed as a year or two older than Tom. In fact, I'd say Tom has a bad case of hero worship when it comes to Huck.

Frankly, I've always like the Huck Finn character, except in this film. He's hard and not very friendly, as likely to push Tom away as he is to spend time with him.

All this is a shame, because Jonathan Taylor Thomas had the potential to be great as Tom Sawyer. Based on his delivery of lines in Home Improvement, I think a Tom Sawyer true to the book would have been a knock out. Here, you see glimpses of what could have been. But on the whole, the material lets the star down.

While I've been focusing on the star, the rest of the cast is fine. They get the better end of the material and bring their characters to life.

An interesting side note, this movie was written by Stephen Sommers, best known for the recent Mummy films. This was released a few years before he hit it big with those movies, however.

So far, I've been pretty hard on the film, but it isn't all bad. If you can get past how badly the two main characters are butchered, there is a good story here. The most famous comic scenes from the novel are all here and are very funny. The church scene especially is funny. There are some other scenes that capture the fun of the book as well. And Tom and Huck trade some great banter a few times.

There is also an effort to beef up the suspense of the plot with Injun Joe. Frankly, the rambling nature of the plot is a weakness of the novel. Here, they definitely made things scarier. In fact, they went too far in a couple of scenes. I could easily picture this movie scaring young kids. Older ones will appreciate the added suspense, however. Much of that praise goes to Eric Schweig who is perfect as the menacing Injun Joe.

This movie is disappointing because it had the potential to be great. The fun elements are present, but the characters are stripped of what make them work together. As a result, Tom and Huck isn't a complete waste of time, but it isn't something to rush out and see, either.